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I’m really skeptical of genetic political predisposition, but experience tells me that people on the nominal left are quick to embrace such stories, for their own reassurance, however flimsy the evidence. More than a few of us have, at some point, felt misled and even defrauded by those we voted for, and some of us find ourselves walking away from groups we only thought we identified with.

Also, we may say that something’s “in our blood,” such as, for example, the traditional Scots-Irish distrust of anyone flouting their wealth (because of experience with actual and wannabe aristocracy), but that has to do with family values passed down to us, and not anything genetic.

It doesn’t surprise me, this is likely a result of those idiotic “three strikes”/habitual offender laws which give judges almost no discretion. I know California has revised their law where now the focus is on violent felonies.